“All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. “
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

In the last few days I have been conducting an examination of my local executive director. The sad thing is that in my new office - actually bump that- cubicle. I will sit a mere 7 feet away from her office whereas before I had at minimum three city blocks worth of distance between us. Anyway I have been studying this woman for a while and I am certain that some of you may have known a person like this. The same director who did not give the staff from my grant the federally provided raise because the staff on other grants didn’t get one. The woman under which comp time has become a memory. This woman who docked a staff member for the hour it took him to change his tire which caught a flat while out on an errand for her. I understand a few things, this woman is a control freak, she should work in corporate america, and I could make money taking lots on who will kirk out on her first. She is not only a control freak, but it seems as though she has or seeks nothing outside of her job. She works weekends, late nights and early mornings. When she is in the office all she does is work. I mean she won’t even turn on a radio. As a matter of fact I’ve been trying to think what type of music she might listen to and I keep drawing a blank. I can’t even see her listening only to classical. The worse part is she is devoid of any true humor and she can be rude. Frankly she either needs some sex or an ass whooping really, really bad. I’ve had offers to conduct the latter from more than one person…I’m keeping these on reserve. I have no idea what would help this woman. The truly worse part is she is loved by the majority of the board members, however not those who are most community oriented. It was she who authored our move out of our own buiding and into a space in their office. I might have failed to mention that before our youth had two floors on which to relax, now they have a 8 x 13′ space in the basement of our new prison, pardon me, place of business. It bewilders me how a person with her nature makes up their mind to go into human services. This ruthless “efficiency” has no place in a non-profit organization. Perhaps an Enron type corporation or even better an oil company would be more suited for her talents. Somewhere along the way she missed the fact that a person in her position as a middle man between a board and staff should work for the staff. The job of the board is to think about numbers and hard facts. When staff is not happy than everything falls apart. People tend to forget that frontline staff gets the work done. Any success any agency has is directly related to th efforts of frontline staff. Directors can organize and plan, but it’s the staff that makes things happen. Without them you have nothing and more and more people are leaving this organization. So I am still left with the question what makes her tick. Accolades? Is she career minded and driven. Does she just not realize that her goals are unattainable so long as treats her staff like cattle? Does she not accept the fact that alienating clients will bring about the ruin of an agency? Is her need for control blinding her to the reality of what is happening around her? Staff has realized that many of her efforts do not work out as she planned because of her lack of bend. Yes I said bend. It is my understanding that hard and rigid things tend to break. Even rocks errode over time. Something pliable like water tends to have it’s way because it adjusts to the circumstances. Water eats away at metal. It fits through crevices, it crashes and destroys, it surrounds and decays. Water evaporates only to join the atmosphere and reintroduce itself as rain. {channeling Bruce Lee}” Put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot, water can flow and it can crash, be water my friend.” This lady is a granite slab and the tide is slowly rise, just call me Aquaman kids. Not just because I talk to Salmon when it’s been prepared well either.